Company profile: bKash witnesses steady growth

Mobile Financial Service (MFS) operator bKash has exhibited a steady growth in number of customers and transactions during last five years.

The BRAC Bank subsidiary also registered steady growth in net profit during the period with the growth of its consumer base and transactions.

bKash, established on March 1 in 2010, has been playing an important role in improving access to formal financial/banking services since its inception.

The company reported a net profit worth more than Tk 487.8 million for 2017, which was Tk 188.5 million for 2014.

The company witnessed the highest number of customers who opened accounts in 2017 to get mobile financial services.

In 2017, the company's daily average transaction counts were 4.32 million, 20.2 per cent higher than the daily average transaction counts observed in 2016.

The number of customers increased gradually from 2013 to 2017. The number of customers rose to 28.76 million in 2017 while the number of active customers was above 14.36 million.

The year 2017 was a significant for bKash in terms of its technological advancement, regulatory compliance and growth, the company said in its financial statement.

"The company continues to grow and achieve targets while adapting to the new changes in the industry."

The number of active customers (defined as those who made at least one transaction in the past 90 days) has also increased by 6.9 per cent in 2017 compared to 2016.

Asked, whether the fee taken for bKash transaction is logical, Shamsuddin Haider Dalim, head of corporate communications, said the fee is defined considering the interest of all stakeholders. "Bangladesh Bank has approved the fee."

He said that 77 per cent of the transaction fee is taken by bKash agents, 7.0 per cent is taken by mobile operators and remaining 16 per cent is taken by the MFS operator.

"The agents will not be interested to facilitate bKash transactions if they do not get benefit from this financial service," said Mr. Dalim.

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